Alexandre Chemetoff's urban design draws on decades of designing landscapes, using new methods to reinvigorate older areas of the city and their architecture, while simultaneously proposing new buildings and neighborhoods-an innovative and unique method. Alexandre Chemetoff's professional trajectory and practice has veered from small to large as well as large to small. In contrast to much of the verbiage about so-called "landscape urbanism," his work at city-scale draws on his experience designing landscapes, using new methods to reinvigorate older areas of the city and their architecture, while simultaneously proposing new buildings and neighborhoods-an innovative and unique method. Early works by his office, the Bureau des paysages, such as the internationally celebrated Garden of Bamboo at the Parc de la Villette in Paris and the Place de la Bourse in Lyon are more easily identified as beautiful landscape architecture; less easily categorized are major renewal projects such as the lle de Nantes and the creation of a new neighborhood and re-creation of an existing quarter in Nancy. While these works, products of intelligent and thoughtful design, can rightly qualify as either landscape architecture or urban design, there really is no specific term for the process that produced them. Adopting a mode of operation intending to change everything without changing everything, designs by Chemetoff and the Bureau des paysages have eschewed any singular style. Chemetoff claims that he seeks "to construct a singular aesthetic which draws its sources from the surrounding world," and in some projects the hand of the designer may not be at all apparent. Some design proposals have challenged governments and governmental policies with an attitude he terms "attentive disobedience," in reference to naturalist and essayist Henry David Thoreau's proposal of civil disobedience. The program provided or derived may be provocative, but it only poses the question. The program initiates; the designer questions, the context enriches the intensity of the enquiry and suggests an aesthetic. "There are no places abstracted from their context, places which are not inscribed in a history and a geography," claims Chemetoff. In all, the environments created over more than forty years of practice are worthy of study and the methods employed by Chemetoff and the Bureau des paysages worthy of consideration and emulation.
Collective Living and the Architectural Imagery, Applied Research + Design (AR+D), 2026
In an era defined by housing precarity, social fragmentation, and environmental urgency, Collective Living and the Architectural Imaginary examines how architects have reimagined and can continue to reimagine-the way in which we live together. Tracing a lineage of collective housing projects from early twentieth-century experiments to contemporary proposals that challenge dominant market-driven paradigms, the book presents sixty projects from across the globe, redrawn by the authors and organized into ten distinct approaches to housing design. Bridging past and future, built form and experimental drawings, the book summons readers to reconsider housing not only as shelter, but as a critical framework for rethinking domesticity, civic identity, and urban life. This volume invites architects, urbanists, and scholars to embrace collective housing as a critical arena for the design of the contemporary city and to reexamine the terms of how we can dwell together.
Landscapes for Adaptation Evidence from China, Axiomatic Editions, 2026
The climate crisis is now readily evident rather than a future possibility. After decades of failing to mitigate our impacts, we must now adapt to survive in the context of a rapidly changing climate. Adaptation requires enlightened planning and reconceptualization of our urban environments. The engineering solutions inherited from the nineteenth century are obsolete. These Western single-purpose civil engineering systems are brittle and prone to catastrophic failure. Climate adaptation demands that we replace those obsolete systems with landscapes for human adaptation. This process demands the best available scientific knowledge, experiments, and evidence. In the twenty-first century, China has built more experiments in climate adaptation than any other culture. An overwhelming number of those experiments are the work of Kongjian Yu and his firm, Turenscape. Over the past two decades, Turenscape has realized hundreds of built experiments in climate adaptation through landscape architecture and planning. This publication presents sixty of the most significant of those experiments. The book analyzes those projects and evidence of their environmental performance. Landscapes for Adaptation assembles a menu of practical strategies and real-world tactics for landscape adaptation in China and around the world.
For years, advances in architectural visualization have been measured by image quality. Physically accurate lighting, sophisticated material systems, and real-time rendering have made photorealistic imagery an industry expectation. Yet architectural practice has evolved in a different direction.
Today, clients, consultants, engineers, and design teams contribute earlier and more frequently throughout the design process. Design reviews no longer simply present decisions. They increasingly become part of how those decisions are made.
Photograph of Ulugbek Observatory by E. Yuditsky, April 1956 Cosmonaut mosaic by the artist Zharsky Nikolay Vasilievich, 1982 Photograph of Maidanak Observatory
The AA Visiting School Samarkand, Imagined Skies, takes place at the Observatory of Ulugbek, a machine built to observe the sky, serves as a departure point for participants to engage with broader issues of climate change, heritage, and astronomy.
In collaboration with the Municipality of Mykonos, Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Aegean Maritime Museum. Internationally renowned photographer of landscape and architecture Erieta Attali (PhD) presents Archipelago of Memory | From Delos to the Aegean - a photographic meditation on the transformations of the Aegean landscape that extends beyond the limits of space and the geographical circle of the Cyclades, and speaks to the history of civilization through the dialogue between landscape and art.
PALIMPSEST OF AFRICAN CITIES : DIG WHERE YOU STAND
Presented as part of the OFF Programme of the 2026 Dakar Biennale and Partcours, Palimpsest of African Cities is the latest edition of the DIG WHERE YOU STAND programme initiated by the African Artists' Foundation and taking place in several venues in Dakar, Senegal, from the 20th of November 2026 to the 28th of February 2027.
**The first comprehensive monograph on multidisciplinary design studio Formafantasma, one of the most creative and innovative design duos working today**
First Prize Winner: Below Shadows. Image Courtesy of Buildner
Buildner has announced the results of its fourth annual Home of Shadows international architecture ideas competition. The competition series is designed to focus on the vital interplay between light and shadow in creating functional and inviting living spaces. It highlights the importance of natural light in home design, essential for creating comfortable, inviting, and practical environments.
Light is viewed as a language through which architects communicate emotions in their designs, with shadows playing an equally significant role in influencing the ambiance of a space. The balance between light and shadow allows for the creation of spaces with depth and texture, setting different moods for various purposes. Often, this balance can be achieved through the strategic placement of windows and doors.
The exhibition of the 17th Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BEAU) will arrive at the Embassy of Spain in Japan, in Tokyo, on September 4, marking its first international venue following its tour through Ponferrada, La Palma, and Avilés. Curated by Ander Bados and Miguel Ramón under the title Flujos Comunes, Tokyo will be the penultimate stop of this traveling cycle, conceived to internationally promote the talent, diversity, and innovative capacity of Spanish architecture and urbanism.
The XIV Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU) announces the selected projects A total of 174 projects have been selected from the 711 proposals submitted in the Works and Publications category; finalists will be announced in September.
The International Sustainable Building Competition will be held at COP31 and will be open to participants from all countries, with the aim to promote energy-efficient, low-carbon, climate-resilient, and sustainable building practices, highlight best solutions, and support their global dissemination. Application Dates 15 April 15 October 2026 Announcement of Winners COP31 - Antalya *Winners will be awarded a certificate of honour. Competition Details and Application yesint.csb.gov.tr
Futurebuild Queensland is the state's only dedicated trade exhibition for the building, design and development sectors. Held annually, it brings together the entire state’s design and build ecosystem for two days of product discovery, industry connection and business opportunities that help shape how Queensland builds.
Second Prize Winner: A stair, a spiral, or a park. Image Courtesy of Buildner
Buildner has announced the results of its third edition Architect's Stair international architecture ideas competition. The event invited designers to reflect on one of architecture's oldest and most symbolic elements: the stair. Beyond its functional role as a connector of levels, the stair was positioned here as a medium of architectural storytelling—an invitation to explore ideas of procession, sequence, space, and form.
